10
Family Rebus’s own family life is a mess – he is divorced and hardly sees his daughter Brain Holmes – is having difficulty with his wife The Toal family – Uncle Joe Toal. Eve Cudden cheats on her husband with her son and steals from him. She also plans to leave Malky. “She looked like a cat: same morals, same instinct.” (386)

11
Family Major Weir – causes his daughter massive pain “Her fists gouged her knees” (429) She feels the need to completely reinvent herself, changing her name and accent “Her face turned childlike...” (430) Rebus says: “You like the idea of torturing him” Noticeably Weir represents authority – “They call him ‘an institution’ in the oil world. Me, I was institutionalised...And then abused.” She asks Rebus, “if everything’s so wonderful, how come everything’s so fucked up?”